Nfl Won`t Discuss Replay Official`s `Evidence`

November 08, 1989|By Don Pierson.

The National Football League refused comment Tuesday on whether replay official Bill Parkinson had ``indisputable visual evidence`` to award the Green Bay Packers the winning touchdown in Sunday`s 14-13 victory over the Bears.

``It was a judgment call,`` said league spokesman Jim Heffernan. ``We do not comment on that.``

Art McNally, chief of league officials, refused to reveal his judgment on the call. McNally reviews instant-replay reversals, files reports and grades officials. In some cases, officials are reprimanded or suspended. Game results never are overturned.

According to the Bears, Parkinson did not have the necessary

``indisputable visual evidence`` required under the rules for a replay official to overrule a call made on the field. Parkinson took four minutes to overturn the call by line judge Jim Quirk, who was standing on the line of scrimmage and ruled the ball thrown for a touchdown by quarterback Don Majkowski left his hand past the line, nullifying the touchdown.

Because the position of a quarterback`s feet makes no difference in the rule (he can be past the line), it requires judgment on the part of officials to determine whether the ball separates from the hand beyond the plane of the line.

Television commentators unfamiliar with the rule clearly saw that Majkowski`s feet were behind the line of scrimmage and therefore assumed that Parkinson`s reversal was correct. But upon further review of the further review, it is difficult to determine without computer analysis whether the ball crossed the plane.

If crossing the line of scrimmage with the feet instead of the ball were the rule, it would be easier to enforce. The rule is written to be consistent with other rules covering the spot of the ball. The ball must cross the plane of the goal line, for example, for it to be a touchdown. When a quarterback slides down in the open field, the ball is spotted where the ball ends up, not the feet.